Shatar - Mongolian Chess

Shatar was the variant of chess, played for many centuries in Mongolia,
before it was replaced by FIDE chess by pressure of the former CCCP.
This game is a direct offspring of the medieval Arabic chess, evolving
in a different direction as chess did in Western Europe and Russia.
The movement of the queen is particularly interesting, as it has the
combined moves of a Ferz (general) and Rook.

In 1993, AISE organized a `Grand Prix'
tournament (played by postal mail) on Shatar. In later years, more
Shatar tournaments were held in this game.

Rules

The same pieces and the same startup position as orthodox chess are used,
but with the following modifications:

The King (Noin) cannot castle.

The Queen (Berse) can move like a rook or one square diagonally.

The Knight (Mori) cannot give mate.

The Pawn (Chu) does not have a double initial step, with the
exception of the pawn before the queen. Pawns only promotes to Berse
(Queen).

Rooks (Terge) and Bishops (Teme) have the same moves as in orthodox chess.

The first move of the game is obligatory: 1. d2-d4, followed
by 1. d7-d5.

There are different types of check: Shak is given by queen, rook or
knight; Tuk is given by a bishop, and zod is given by a pawn. As written
above, a mate with a knight is forbidden. Moreover, one may not mate
except by a shak (i.e., checking by queen or rook), or by a mate that is
followed after a series of checks that included at least one shak. E.g.,
if we mate the opponent after checking with a knight, then in the next
move with a pawn, and then mating with a bishop, then the game is won.
If one mates the king without fulfilling the criterium, i.e., with a
bishop or pawn, or after a series of bishop and pawn checks, then the
game is a draw - this is called Niol. Also, if a player has only a king
and no other pieces left, then the game is a draw - this is called Robado.

Written by Hans Bodlaender, based upon a text by Fabio Forzoni.
WWW page created: February 24, 1998.
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Mongolia and China were often at odds in humanity bloody history. Founder Bodlaender put this up 18 1/2 years ago. What inspired a look-see where to put this quote is 5 c. bce Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'.

(23-25) On the field of battle, the spoken word does carry far enough; hence the institution of Gongs and Drums. Nor can ordinary objects be seen clearly enouigh; hence the institution of Banners and Flags. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point. The host thus forming a single united body, it is impossible either for the brave to advance alone, or for the cowardly to retreat alone. This is the art of handling large masses of men.

RinÄen and Montagu after him mention the old fashioned Mongolian custom of
asking whether the opponent was playing his bers bold or cautious (maybe
this was the question that the old lama actually was asking S. Cammann
before their game?) to signify the choice of the more and less powerful
moves for this piece (queen or dragon king). I wonder if any of the
readers here have played this game with the shortened camel move (Kisliuk
describes it as 1-3 squares). I have the quite unsubstantiated impression
that the "bold" camel is slightly more valuable or desirable to retain
than our bishop when the bers is played "cautious." I have not tried the
shortened camel move against an opponent yet. Thoughts, anyone?
I truly would like to know more about the ancient treatise that Montagu
mentions is to be found in the Ulaanbaatar National Library. My attempts
to discover information elsewhere about it and what it may reveal about the
history of this game have been fruitless to date.

Thank you, Mr. MÃ¼ller, for your advice! I must tip my hat to the man of
greater ability; I am too dim to script a ZRF for shatar, it seems.
I have wondered if any who read these pages who are Mongolian or Tuvinian,
or who play shatar with Mongolians or Tuvinians, whether the modification
to the horse pieces (wind horses?) in this picture
(http://history.chess.free.fr/images/shatar/pozzi/mori-knight-02-tuva-r.jpg)
signifies the enhanced horse (i.e., with Amazon power after the first move)
that Assia Popova describes. It would be curious to see how a piece so
powerful, yet incapable of delivering checkamte, interacts with the other
pieces. At least, it seems easier to avoid the draws that obtain under
shatar's special rules for checkmate.

In Shogi there is a similar rule, that you cannot mate by dropping a pawn. This was quite easy to implement in my Shogi engine, by reversing the result of a detected checkmate when the previous move was a Pawn drop. So it was not treated as illegal, but just losing to do it. (Which is basically the way engines treat exposing your own King to check as well.)
It seems that most of the cases described for Shatar could be solved by this method too. The only difference is that it might have to look somewhat further back along the branch, to see if there was a shak.